Google held its curious little Maps event today (and WWDC is right around the corner, surely a coincidence, is it not?), showing off some new stuff in maps. While digital maps are one big snore to me (old maps fascinate me to no end, though), they did have one cool thing to show off: full 3D mapping, which they're adding to Google Earth, also for mobile devices. It'll arrive over the coming weeks. The race is on: will Apple's 3D map thing arrive before, or after "the coming weeks"?

People have been asking for the ability to use our maps offline on their mobile phones. So today we’re announcing that offline Google Maps for Android are coming in the next few weeks. Users will be able to take maps offline from more than 100 countries. This means that the next time you are on the subway, or don’t have a data connection, you can still use our maps.

Finally; took them long enough. Well, that pretty much retires one major remaining Nokia advantage... (though the data of Nokia Maps is still nicely more detailed in my area, includes even dirt or forest roads - useful on bike trips; I imagine that might be the case in many places outside of few core Google markets)